


Biases

by Illiteracy_is_for_woozles



Series: The Future Is History [23]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 1940s Attitudes, Apologies, Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Coming of Age, F/M, Gen, Minor Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Out of Character, Parenthood, Parenting Fails, Period Typical Attitudes, Protective Steve Rogers, Steve is very very sorry, Tattoos, kind of?, mention of needles, steve rogers is an idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22232008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illiteracy_is_for_woozles/pseuds/Illiteracy_is_for_woozles
Summary: Steve screwed up with Sarah and has opinions that aren't right, but he's willing to learn.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Future Is History [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1222838
Kudos: 14





	Biases

**Author's Note:**

> So we all know Steve Rogers is an idiot. He has opinions that aren't based on anything other than "Well, I think this or was raised with this bias so that's gotta be true because I can't be wrong." This is canon, but what if he actually admitted when he was wrong for once? Or at least that he didn't understand? And parents are already so weird about tattoos and most body mods, so why not throw my own problems onto this and make Steve act like I wish my mom had.
> 
> Warning: There is a mention of needles, but it's a fic about tattoos so you should already know that but I thought I'd state it blatantly.

Steve climbed out onto the fire escape and sat on the metal bars, back to the wall. After a moment he lifted his head from the bricks and let it fall back again and again. He was an idiot, maybe even a bad parent.

An ache spread through the back of his skull and the sun didn’t help much as it felt like he was slowly baking.

Why didn't he just keep his mouth shut? Or maybe he should have asked more questions before jumping the gun as usual. How was he going to fix this? A long, drawn-out sigh escaped him as he took his phone out and called Bucky. Bucky always knew what to do when he didn't.

" _Hey, Stevie._ " Giggles and clanging metal could be heard in the background. The sounds of a happy, _functional_ household.

Steve winced.

"Hi."

Silence greeted him for a moment.

" _You okay, pal?_ "

He made a noise of uncertainty and ran a hand over his face.

" _You wanna talk about it?_ " Bucky's voice was kind without being patronizing and Steve could hear a door shutting and blocking out the sounds of other voices.

"Yeah, if I'm not interrupting anything."

Bucky hummed.

" _Nah, we were just starting dinner._ " He paused. " _So? What did you do this time?_ "

Steve smiled at the attempt at levity but it dropped away as he tried to phrase it.

"I may have made my daughter hate me."

Bucky sighed.

" _I'm sure it feels like it, but you couldn't have done anything that bad._ "

Steve toed absently at the bars across from him.

"I- I said some things to Sarah that I can't really take back and I don't know how or even if I _can_ fix it."

" _Did you apologize at least?"_

Steve growled low in his throat.

" _Yes_ , but by then it was already out there and I just-" He leaned over his knees and wrapped his free arm around them. "I just want her to be safe and not have to live like we did."

Bucky was silent a moment.

" _What happened, Stevie?_ "

He hesitated.

“Sarah asked Peg and I if she could get a tattoo.” He bit his lip.

Silence.

“ _What did Carter have to say about it?”_

“She said it was fine, but it’s a _tattoo_.”

His jaw worked for a moment, jaw-dropping but no sound coming out.

“What do you mean ‘ _and_?’ Bucky.” He dropped his voice an octave. “She wants a _permanent_ tattoo.”

“ _So?_ ” He chuckled a little. “ _It’s just a little ink and a couple hundred needles._ ”

Steve rolled his eyes and stood, pacing the very short length of the fire escape.

“You _know_ what people thought about people with tattoos when we were coming up.”

 _“Listen to yourself. ‘When we were coming up.’”_ Bucky stressed the words. “ _That was nearly a hundred years ago, Steve. It’s considered fine art by a lot of people, now._ ”

He had a point, but so did Steve.

“Yeah, but look at how judgemental people still are, how they see a tattoo and automatically think they know who you are. I want my daughter to be able to get a decent job and a life without having to prove to people that she’s not-” He stopped himself from repeating what he’d already made the mistake of saying to Sarah.

Bucky groaned.

“ _Stevie, buddy. I’m going to send you a link and I need you to look at it for two seconds, okay?”_

Steve hummed and a beep made him pull the phone away from his ear. He clicked on the link, which lead him to a post on a social media site.

The original post was a selfie of a doctor in full scrubs and lab coat with her hair pulled up in a professional bun, but the photo next to it had her without the coat and showing off tattoos covering her arms. Beneath those was a block of text about judging by appearance.

The post had been shared by dozens of people who added photos of their own; doctors, sure, but also scientists, teachers, police officers, and librarians. If Steve had ever seen it as a respectable profession, it was represented by someone.

He brought the phone back to his ear.

“Yeah, okay, I get your point.” He took a breath. “But what if she wants one that can’t be covered or something that’s controversial or-”

“ _Then that’s_ her _choice,_ ” Bucky interrupted. " _Have you ever seen Yasha in short sleeves?”_

Steve couldn’t remember it, but he had to at some point.

“ _He has a tattoo on his left shoulder that’s half a star up against half of an hourglass and Lenore’s name written in Jotunn script is on the inside of his right forearm._ ” He huffed a laugh. “ _My kid is a teacher in the United States and he’s wearing symbols of another planet and the world’s most deadly assassins on his sleeves, not to mention the things you can’t see with his shirt still on. If those two alone aren’t controversial, I don’t know what is._ ”

He opened his mouth and shut it again.

“ _Look, I get that you’re worried and that’s good. You wouldn’t be a good parent if you didn’t worry, but Sarah’s an adult. The fact that she asked your permission first is better than most people get_.”

Steve shrugged, admitting defeat.

A loud crash emitted from the phone’s speakers and Bucky groaned.

“ _Look, I gotta go. Just apologize and don’t make any excuses. Listen to your kid talk for a second and then talk_ to _her, not_ at _her. She’s old enough to think for herself.”_

“Yeah, I- Okay, Buck. Thanks.”

He hummed a response and was already shouting at Bekah to get off the ceiling before he ended the call.

Steve stared at his phone for a moment before sliding it back in his pocket and climbing back through the window.

He went down the hall and stopped with his hand raised to rap on Sarah’s door. Would she really want to see him? Did he even deserve another chance?

The decision was made for him when Peggy’s voice came through the thin wood.

“If you’re not going to knock, you might as well just come in.”

He hesitated again, but turned the knob and stuck his head inside. He half expected someone to throw something at him. Or Peggy might decide to shoot at him again, but he wouldn’t really blame her.

Sarah sat on her bed with her legs pulled up under her chin, a defiant glare in her red-rimmed eyes. Peggy lay propped up on the bed next to her with her arms crossed and an unreadable expression.

Steve swallowed, though his mouth was dry, and cautiously looked Sarah in the eye.

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

She nodded, still looking like she’d rather he threw himself at another alien with a plasma gun.

He took a step inside and shut the door behind him.

“I- I’m an idiot.” He took a deep breath. “I am _so_ sorry. I didn’t mean anything I said and was responding out of my own personal biases, which have no place here, and I am sorry.”

Sarah blinked and Peggy raised a brow.

“I just get so wrapped up in my own opinions and forget that you have your own and have probably thought about things like this a lot more than I have.” He slid his hands in his pockets. “You’re grown and I can’t stop you from doing whatever you set your mind to, but I’d at least like to be able to understand and support you in those decisions.”

Silence filled the room for several minutes, making him feel like his skin was crawling with ants as two of the four most important people in his life continued to stare him down.

“I’m still mad at you,” she finally said.

He nodded.

“I would be, too.”

She scooted back to the head of the bed next to her mother, silently offering Steve a seat.

As he sat down, Peggy nodded.

“So, um, what were you thinking of getting?”

  
  
  


Daya went through his inventory again, making notes of everything he would need to reorder soon and everything he definitely did _not_ need more of. (There was an entire cabinet of gloves now)

The bell at the front of the shop made a soft tinkling sound and he stepped through the door, not looking up from his notepad.

“Hey, how can I help you?” he asked with a pencil hanging from his lip.

“I have an appointment with Daya?”

He finally looked up to see one of the actual, _real-life_ Kid Avengers standing at the desk and _Captain freakin’ America_ studying _Daya’s personal paintings_ on the walls.

The girl handed him what seemed to be the original paper copy of the drawing he’d received a photo of in an email last week: A minimalist phoenix with its tail of flame spelling out “still I rise” in cursive as it flew across the page.

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't get through the next part of the story until I got this out of my head. It was originally supposed to be almost entirely crack, but it became... this.


End file.
